TASHKENT, Jan 24: The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, said on Thursday the United States was willing to aid the former Soviet republics in Central Asia root out religious extremists.

Cooperation between the United States and the Central Asian states currently centres on intelligence sharing and training, but it could expand over the coming months if US assistance was requested, Franks said at the end of his latest tour of the region.

“This cooperative arrangement provides opportunities for us to work with all the military forces in the region (and) to provide assistance where it is requested,” Franks told reporters.

He said cooperation with the United States would “enable forces in each of the nations of Central Asia to be able to work on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) problem if there is perceived to be one in any one of the states locally”.

The IMU attacked Uzbekistan’s southern border in 2000 and are blamed for bomb blasts in Tashkent in 1999.

Franks, who has been on a visit to the region since Monday, said he believed that the rebel group’s leader, Uzbek warlord Djuma Namangani, had been killed.

“The information I have reflects that Namangani is dead,” he said.

The Taliban had been destroyed as a functioning government inside Afghanistan, while terrorist organizations in the war-torn state had been fragmented and in large part destroyed, he added.

The United States would nevertheless continue to hunt down remaining pockets of Taliban, Al Qaeda and the IMU, he said.

“On the IMU my comments will focus on Afghanistan because I believe that is where the remnants of IMU, Al Qaeda and perhaps some other groups remain,” Franks added.

Uzbekistan has emerged as a key ally in the US-led military offensive in Afghanistan and has provided a base at Khanabad in the south of the country for some 1,500 US troops fighting in Afghanistan.—AFP